Hi all,
Thought I'd share my experience on the Naviplus Android Auto / Apple CarPlay integration, installed in my 2012 Prado 150 Altitude (ie: same head unit as VX and Kakadu)
[2008-2013] Toyota Prado Apple CarPlay & Android Auto Integration (naviplus.com.au)
Thanks to Starbuck for also giving me some advice and assistance before my purchase.
I installed it 2 days ago, so it's very new, but I have a reasonable feel for it. Overall impression is really positive, car feels much more modern now!
How does it work ...
Thought I'd share my experience on the Naviplus Android Auto / Apple CarPlay integration, installed in my 2012 Prado 150 Altitude (ie: same head unit as VX and Kakadu)
[2008-2013] Toyota Prado Apple CarPlay & Android Auto Integration (naviplus.com.au)
Thanks to Starbuck for also giving me some advice and assistance before my purchase.
I installed it 2 days ago, so it's very new, but I have a reasonable feel for it. Overall impression is really positive, car feels much more modern now!
How does it work ...
- When you start the car, switch to AUX and press and hold the hang-up button for three seconds. Android Auto starts automatically and opens default music and navigation apps (I use Waze)
- It is a full Android Auto experience, including voice assistant.
- Touch screen works better than I thought, The Prado has a resistive (single touch) screen but you can still drag the screen (eg: dragging a map). Requires a small amount of pressure.
- Love having real navigation (Waze announcing red-light cameras, traffic jams etc).
- Phone works fine (I think it uses the supplied microphone) and steering wheel controls all work for calls, volume and even next track on Spotify.
- If you exit out of Naviplus (press and hold the hang-up button again), normal functionality of the head-unit returns.
- Reverse camera works (even when using Android Auto)
- Starts quickly
- Two options:
- 1) When in the AUX input, run a radio app on your phone (iHeartRadio, Radio Australia etc). Or use Spotify etc.
- 2) Remain in the FM/AM function on your headunit, but start Android Auto by holding down the hang-up button. You get all of the Android Auto functions (maps etc) but the audio is playing through your normal radio. The only limitation is that sound is from your radio, not Android Auto so you no longer get voice-prompts such as traffic alerts.
- Android Auto doesn't support ALL apps (including Hema and Australia Topo Maps). That is a limitation of Android Auto, not Naviplus. It does support Gaia though.
- Took a few hours and reasonably straightforward if you're comfortable pulling your dash apart (taking the centre-stack equipment out). Most of the cables are just piggyback (unplug the original, plug in the new cable and plug the original cable into a female plug on the new cable). The touch-cable required access to the circuit board, but it was still a relatively simple process of disconnecting a ribbon cable and connecting a new one. Reasonably good instructions were provided.
- Naviplus did a good job of pre-configuring the unit and marking any unneeded sockets.
- I had a few questions and Naviplus responded to my emails very quickly.
Comment